Montrose revisited

Howdy - Reiner and I will be joing Bill Plavic et al for an impromptu collecting trip at the Montrose Fluorite occurrence in Niagara Falls, Ontario - tomorrow - toward noon or afternoon - spectacular fall weather - perfect for this sort of thing - who needs to clean leaves out of the eaves troughs, anyway!?

might see you there?

Maggie

Did you have any luck Maggie?

I just got some wedges and feathers and I'm hoping to try them out before the snow fall. I want to see if I can crack a boulder with them.

I was holding out for a late Dundas trip, but it would seem that's not going to happen.

Andrew

Hi Andrew - we spent some time on the flats to the south of the boulder feild - only three of us, as Bill's friends had to reschedule. Bill found a rather nicely-sized calcite and I found a shaggy mane mushroom.

Reiner found a double-terminated selenite on gypsum - THUMBNAIL sized, how cool is that? Had a close call with it too, and I post this as a warning to everyone who cleans their specimens and puts them to dry on the heating vent: let your significant other know that you have done this! Otherwise, she, from her 5' 10" vantage and with 50 years plus poorly functioning eyeballs will more than likely consider it a bit of toilet tissue and promptly sweep it up with the rest of the dustbunnies!

Fortunately, I wasn't over-zealous with the dustmop. Disaster avoided.

As for Dundas, I think it is safe to say that the window of opportunity for that field trip has passed.

Gotta love the weather we had this weekend, though... I was rather surprised to see that we had Montrose to ourselves... no stunt bikers, no paintball players, no mineral collectors other that we three.

No sign of construction at Montrose, either... so get ye there while the getting is good!

Maggie

Paintball. That's where that paint was from.

also meant to mention that residents have taken to dumping their trash in an about the boulders... won't be long and we should be able to use someone's beaten up old lazy-boy to take rests between bashing rock.

sigh

Good thing you were able to make it for Sunday Maggie. The weather was amazing, too bad i was working that day or i would have joined you. You or Reiner have any luck with fluorite cubes?

I was there around 2 weeks ago and i managed to evict a nice clear 2 cm cube from a large vug. I got lots of 1 cm cubes also. I also got some weird shaped large Sphalerite, in the 2 cm range. will post pictures as soon as i can. The effects of all that hacking i can still feel. Its a great way to vent anger.

Judging by all the postings on the message board, Montrose has to be one of the most talked about site in Southern Ontario.

Cant wait to see your new pics.

Shame about Dundas, was really charged up about going there.

Michal.

Hi Maggie, funny as I was there Sunday as well from 10am till about 1:30pm. Found a small fluorite, some nice Selenite and a very nice mass of White Dolomite crystals, some in vugs. Also in the vugs are icicles of Selenite around 5mm long. That's a first from Montrose.. Only three nice specimens but the latter was worth the trip.. and ohh what beautiful day it was.. Attached is a pic of just one of the vugs. It's the only one I can get a decent photo of..Hope you like..

Andrew J..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2009 02:02AM by Andrew Johns.

Here is an interesting item that I found in the midst of the rubble of the big boulder I believe Andrew and Michal were working on. At first I thought I had something completely new, but it turns out to be radiating sprays of calcite coated in an unknown. What is particularly noteworthy about this is that there are micro (and I mean MICRO) quartz crystals scatter throughout the blades. The yellow/orange is sphalerite.

size 3.0 x 2.0 x 1.0 cm

Here is Reiner's trophy from the weekend - gypsum on gypsum - the largest crystal measures 1.5 x 0.6 x 0.15 cm

Cool!

That's a very interesting Calcite piece you have there Maggie.. Keep us posted if you find out what the coating is??

Hail

That is a beauty Maggie! Very nice Selenite. That odd calcite you posted, i have seen them as well & i also thought they were something odd, but after closer inspection i also noted it was calcite. Good to hear about the micro quartz though.

I do have an interesting find for you all from Montrose. I found some honey colored fluorite cubes on a fossil/coral. It was dirt covered in a vug & i originally thought it was clear cubes, but after cleaning it turned out to be honey colored( that is the best word to describe the color once you see it in person). The cubes are 0.5 -0.8 cm & some look like only a part of the cube is honey while the other is clear.. They look very similar to a cube you found at Flamboro Maggie. Also they fluoresce orange on some parts of the cubes under LW UV light. Very odd looking, like it changed its mind about the color it wanted to be during formation. At least now we know that honey colored cubes occur here also. I wonder what impurities cause the color?

Here is a pic of the piece with the cubes, most are honey & a few are clear. The cube on the far left is the most honey colored.

Michal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2009 03:32AM by Michal Adamowicz.

UPDATE!! The escavators are now on the lower section of Montrose.. The rubble area near McLeod road.. As of today they are just parked there. Not sure if digging will begin soon?? Opportunity knocks if they unearth more rocks and boulders before removing them..

Andrew J.

Drove by the occurence today. They have escavated lots of rock and some boulders from under the South rock pile. It appears they are digging a foundation hole.. The construction guys were working today.. Hope to go on Sunday and check out the new material.. Will keep you posted